Tuesday - We drove back to The Villages to have lunch with Julie and Barry and two other of Joan's former classmates, Laurel and Judy. We had a fun visit and a great lunch outdoors near a big lake. When we got back to camp, we walked down to the river and fished for a few minutes. John caught a small bass and a shellcracker.
Wednesday - We drove out past Yankeetown and wade-fished in a little park near the boat launch. It was too soft there and we kept getting stuck on the much and there were no fish, so we tried on the Withlacoochee River side but no one was catching there either including us so we headed back. On the way, we stopped at a spillway and fished from shore. We saw one mullet caught but nothing else. The fishing was not good, but we did see two Bald Eagles. One was mature and the other a juvenile and it looked like a fishing lesson was in progress. We also met a group of kayakers who were on the river and also camping at Rainbow Springs.
Thursday - We put the wheels under the kayaks and walked them down to the river to fish the last two hours before dark. John caught two small bass and three bream. We saw some larger bass, but didn't catch any. It was beautiful on the water.
Friday - We got out earlier today on the river and fished until about noon. Joan caught a small bass and John caught about a half dozen bream. The wind came up about 10 AM and made it very difficult to maintain our position in the kayaks. We met a nice man named Roger who gave us some tips on fishing the river and a few flies to try.
Saturday - We had a wonderful day with six friends and relatives shuttled a car down into Dunnellon and kayaked there from the park. It was a perfect day and despite lots of other boaters, quite peaceful. We followed the trip with lunch at the Blue Gator restaurant. The grouper was delicious.
Tuesday - We drove 35 miles to the launch on the Chassahowitzka River and met Skip, Cheryl and Bruce for some kayaking and fishing. Skip and John were the only catchers, with one keeper trout each plus a few other small ones. It was very windy, but warm. We saw many manatees and Joan nearly went surfing when she went over one in shallow water. It made a huge wake trying to get away. Not sure who was more startled.
Wednesday - Our friends, Chris and Sara joined us today to kayak here on the Rainbow River. They have a tandem Sea Eagle inflatable Kayak that performed quite well despite some fairly strong winds
On the river. Afterwards we had lunch at Victorias and enjoyed a good meal and fun chat while watching the boats on the river.
Thursday - We got about an inch of rain last night along with some wind, but nothing violent. We did some cleaning and walking around the campground, had an early dinner and put the kayaks in for a little fishing. It was quite windy, but we were able to find protected areas to use topwater hoppers. We both caught some bream and Joan caught a nearly keeper sized bass.
Friday - Eye doctor appointment for Joan this morning about 61 miles away in Brooksville. Everything looks good.
Saturday - John tied some flies today and instead of fighting the boat traffic at the peak of the day, we waited and put in at 5:30 and just about had the river to ourselves. However, the fish were not as active this evening so we each only managed a few bream. It was beautiful anyway.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
